This sunday ended
the Portuguese Film Festival „Caminhos do Cinema Português“ which
turns our beautiful host city into the capital of Portuguese cinema,
every year around this time.
The CCP
is not only a great opportunity for young and upcoming Portuguese
cineasts to reach a larger audience, it's also the only festival that
has its focus on Portuguese cinema, compared to Lisboa&Estoril
festival, eg, where fewer Portuguese and more international movies
are displayed. With only one exception at CCP, the section „Cinema
mundial“ where a guest country is chosen and movies that are linked
to the evolution of Portuguese cinema are shown. This year, the
guest country was Ireland.
But the
CCP has a lot more sections, well, first of all, there's the „Seccao
competitiva“, where all competing movies are shown, from short
short films to long „normal“ movies. They can be documentaries or
fictional stories or even trying to mix genres as „A ultima vez
que vi Macau“ was this year. The prizes are distributed by a jury
made up from cultural experts that have gained their expertise in
various fields, there are anthropologists, directos, actors,... and
many more professions and there are also special prizes like the
audience's favourite movie, where you could cast a vote after each
movie you'd seen.
Then
there's the „Ensaios visuais“ section where students from schools
and universities in Portugal have the possibility to subscribe their
movies and get chosen, which helps developing a really active scene
for young cinema here.
Just
another fact, nearly every famous or less famous Portuguese director
has been present with at least one movie at CCP which ran its 19th
edition this year. Quite impressive, huh?
And
there's also a special programm for kids, with adequate films and
animations that lead them towards the 6th art using baby
steps and thereby gradually creates a conscient audience that
understands cinema as communication and a starting point for social
and cultural discussions.
Social
and cultural discussions have been a huge topic this edition, not
only because the festival had been on quite a financial shortage
caused by the crisis but also, the enlightening „Master's sessions“
that featured directors and other experts on different topics in
public debates. They had various topics from the links between cinema
and literature up to erotics in portuguese cinema. And of course, the
linked movies where shown to give an insight and a possibilities for
spectators to get their own ideas and maybe discuss them on their own
or by asking questions to the present professionals.
And,
what topped this program was actually the art exhibitions, maybe
you've seen the cinema posters at the academic museum, or the
„rolleux du cinema“ at TAGV where miniature scenes linked to
Coimbra and/or cinema where cut out of paper and glued into empty
rolls of toilet paper. Definitely a creative and cute way to combine
art and cinema.
Some of
you might even have wondered why I said that the cinema finished on
sunday, as the program said 17th. This was also due to the
huge uproar Portugal's currently in, because exactly one week ago, on
the greve geral, TAGV stayed closed in solidarity to all the other
demonstrating workers. Positively speaking we had the luck to enjoy
CCP one day longer than previsted!
Check out their Facebook page or the official homepage to discover the winners and more information:
https://www.facebook.com/caminhoscinema
http://www.caminhos.info/
